The Mother Of Trees
“Mama Miti”
Receives Nobel Peace Prize
"After I heard the news I looked at peaceful Mount Kenya, just above the Outspans Hotel in Nyeri, where I was sitting, and the poor mountain where our forefathers worshipped seemed to look at me and say thank you for helping me."
Crowds of Wangari Maathai's constituents had gathered at the local chief's camp to get famine relief rations, and could hardly understand the unexpected demand for their MP's time by the assembled local and international media crews. Women with battered empty sacks and faces hoping for rations to keep them moving for the next few days could not stop themselves from interrupting Mrs Maathai's speech.
Speaking in Kikyuyu, the local dialect, they asked the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize who she had brought with her. Almost shedding tears of joy once again, the ecologist explained to the anxious women and a few men that finally, after a long struggle, the international community had noticed her 30-year struggle to protect Kenyan forests. To the crowd that was not news. They knew the Kenyan deputy environment minister as "Mama Miti" - a Swahili moniker meaning the mother of trees.
Tribute for Mama Miti below:
